1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to a method and system for scheduling a driver service provider to provide a ride service for one or more third parties. More specifically, the system disclosed herein determines an optimal driver from a set of trusted drivers, and in response to receiving a service request from a user, assigns a willing optimal driver to provide a driving service for a third party. Further disclosed is a method for scheduling a driver service provider to provide a ride service for a third party rider based on identification information of the third party transmitted to the driver service provider.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the public becomes more conscious of environmental concerns, and experiences the financial strain of commuting, there is an increasing demand for better solutions for transportation. In response, car pools allow many people to ride together in one vehicle from one general area to another general area (i.e., from a residential district of a city where each rider lives to a downtown district of a city where each rider works). Many cities have mass transportation systems, including streetcars, trains, light rail, buses, cabs, and other mass transport.
Each of these solutions has positives and negatives that make at least some potential users uncomfortable or with their needs unmet. More recently, ride sharing technology has been developed, which allows a user to request a ride for one or more people from one place to another. The user may transmit a request to one or more server computing devices associated with a number of drivers who are willing to provide a ride service for the one or more people. For example, but not meant as limiting, the user may transmit a request for a ride service to transport him/her and his/her roommate home from a party. In response, a driver associated with the ride service transports the user and the user's roommate home from a party. The user pays a fee to the driver associated with the ride service for the ride service.
Ride sharing is ubiquitous in many large cities in the United States. One limitation of conventional ride sharing technology is that ride sharing relies on the judgment and experience of the user to determine whether or not a particular driver is trustworthy enough to safely transport the user from one place to another. Thus, potential users who lack judgment and experience, or in other words, suffer from diminished mental or physical capacity and who cannot properly identify a safe driver, are at risk when they are offered a ride in a conventional ride sharing situation. For example, but not meant as limiting, say a young child needs a ride to a piano lesson while the child's parents are working. In a conventional ride share program, the young child must rely on his or her less informed judgment and experience to identify whether or not his or her parents would approve of a driver who purports to be the child's driver. In this scenario, parents would worry immeasurably at the thought of their child getting into a vehicle with a driver unknown to them.
Other people with diminished judgment may be similarly at risk. For example, some elderly people with memory weakness or dementia, disabled individuals with reduced communication or cognitive ability, young children, sick people, intoxicated people, people under the influence of narcotics or other drugs, and others may not be able to discern and distinguish a safe driver from an unsafe driver. Further, many of these same individuals lack either the capacity or the ability to request a ride service.
Accordingly, it is one object of this disclosure to provide a system in which a driver may be scheduled to provide a ride service at the request of a non-riding party for a third party rider. It is another object of this disclosure to provide a system whereby the driver may be scheduled to provide a ride service by a requesting user for a third party who is experiencing reduced mental capacity or lacks the experience and judgment to identify a safe driver and a safe ride service environment. It is another object of this disclosure to provide a system, which may notify both a driver and a third party of a ride service request requested by the ride requestor. Finally, it is a further object of this disclosure to provide a method allowing a user to request a driver to provide a ride service for one or more third party riders where the driver is selected from a trusted pool of drivers.